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Search Results for: three words

INTERVIEW: Three Words to Guide Us in 2023

January 16, 2023 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Choosing Three Words to Guide You in 2023

My guests today are Robin McPherson, a mental health professional and career coach; and Telma Sullivan who is an independent career coach helping individuals to launch, advance, or transition their careers.

We have all chosen three words to guide us in 2023.

(1) What are your words and what do they mean to you?

(2) How did you go about choosing them?

Watch or listen to the interview now

BIO’s

Robin McPherson. A mental health professional and an education and career coach. I have over 20 years of experience in the human service and education field. I help people “figure out” what they want. It starts with Envisioning the life they want, then work with the mindset of Believing that one can Achieve their goals. I believe that the key to success is self-belief! I am committed to the process of helping others reach self-actualization. https://www.linkedin.com/in/robin-mcpherson/

Telma Sullivan is an independent career coach helping individuals to launch, advance, or transition their career. She coaches young adults exploring careers, women reentering the workforce, people in mid-career, and career changers. Her coaching approach is client-focused and outcome-oriented, and her services include: job search strategy, resume/CV/cover letter writing, LinkedIn profile, networking, interview/salary negotiation preparation, and career change exploration. Telma is also a yoga instructor who enjoys creative writing and spending time in nature. Web: https://www.telmasullivan.com/

 


Jim Peacock is the principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF, and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

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Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: 3 Words, three words

My Three Words in 2023 to Guide Me

January 9, 2023 by Jim Peacock 4 Comments

My 2023 words did not come as easily to me as they had in the past. As always, I did a tech-free retreat to get out of my house, slow down, write, and think. This was a good starting point, and I felt like two words stood out for me. But the third word had been elusive, so I waited.

Journaling helps. Reading helps. Thinking helps. Slowing down helps.

Probably one of the best things I did this fall was to read Brene Brown’s book,  Atlas of the Heart. I love how she broke down so many emotions and explained some of the subtle differences. It’s possible that all three words this year are because of this book. Yes, I had been thinking about some of them, but the book clarified what they mean to me and encouraged me to think deeper about them.

I struggled with the third word until one day when I sat down, pulled out my pen and journal, and just free-wrote for a few minutes:

I want to keep writing ◊ I want to stay humble ◊ I want to keep helping career coaches ◊ I want to slow down ◊ I want to keep working ◊ I want to keep playing ◊ I want to keep learning ◊ I want humor in my life ◊ I want to be outdoors as much as possible.

What I discovered was that the free writing confirmed the three words I had been considering…and it felt great. So much of this process is trusting my instincts and being authentic. So here are my three words for 2023 and why I chose them.

Joy

As I read Brene’s book, her definition of the word joy really stood out for me. It is “the good mood of the soul” and an intense feeling of deep spiritual connection, pleasure, and appreciation. While experiencing joy, we don’t lose ourselves, we become more truly ourselves. 

She talks about how joy and gratitude are closely connected and can create an “intriguing upward spiral.” The opposite of what I call the “vortex of negativity” when people focus on the negative and all that happens is they get more and more negativity.

Gratitude was one of my 2019 words, and I’ve discovered that my yearly words never really leave me. I try to spend time thinking daily about what I am grateful for. So when I read about the connection between joy and gratitude it really resonated with me. Probably the phrase that really hits home for me is “good mood of the soul.” Yeah, I want some of that every day!

Orange flower with green background and the words, exploration, humility, and joy

Humility

Although I list it here as second, this was the final word I chose. It didn’t really make the list until I did my journal purge and it came out almost immediately. Maybe it’s because I was just visiting my 96-year-old dad in Michigan and have watched him deteriorate from a healthy, vibrant, intelligent, successful man to his small world today. But he still remains thankful and gracious for all Jean (his wife) does for him and for all the times his children visit or call.

I’ve also seen some people in various fields who think they know everything. I am not one of those people and never want to be. I always feel like I have more to learn and that I am never the smartest person in the room. I might have more knowledge about a topic than others, but there is so much to know about any subject and there are so many people I know in the career field doing great work. I never want to lose my humility.

In Atlas of the Heart Brene describes humility  as “openness to new learning combined with a balanced and accurate assessment of our contributions, including our strengths, imperfections, and opportunities for growth.” And most impactful is this quote: 

“I’m here to get it right, not to be right.”

Exploration

This is an interesting word for me that has many meanings already. The word brings with it more questions than answers. Where do I want to spend my time this year? How can I explore new ways of working less while still providing quality? What are some ways to grow Peak-Careers in areas in which I want to do more in? (i.e. workshops) How are all my roles in life going to grow (husband, father, grandfather, mentor, friend)?

Exploration could be my continued effort to explore my 2022 word, balance. This past year I worked to balance my life more by looking at work and life. Exploration seems to be less about balance and more about exploring options to keep my brain growing, me learning, and experiencing new experiences.

We have some travel plans this year too and my curiosity about cultures and meeting new people is always strong. Exploring new environments, a new backpacking trip someplace, and the always present book on my shelf, seems to fit me well for now.

———————– 

If you have tried the New Year’s Resolutions and they have not worked well for you,  you may want to try this activity of choosing three words to guide you each year. You can watch some interviews and read some blogs I’ve written on this topic here https://peak-careers.com/?s=three+words 

My strongest piece of advice is to write them down regularly. Not just print them off and post them, but to physically write them down with a writing utensil. There is something kinesthetically magical about that process where it seems to embed the word in my head better when I write it.

Below are my past words. FYI, I feel like they don’t ever leave me, they just are not forefront in my thinking.

2016 – Health ★ Mindfulness ★ Focus

2017 – Intentional ★ Authentic ★ Wellness

2018 – Reach ★ Capacity ★ Consistency

2019 – Reflection ★ Purposeful ★ Gratitude

2020 – Philanthropy ★ Rebalance ★ Strategic

2021 – Be ★ Kindness ★ Understanding

2022 – Community ★ Balance ★ Positivity

If you have chosen three words to guide you for the year, I’d love to hear what they are and what they mean to you.

Watch this interview with three of us talking about our Three Words to Guide Us in 2023


Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: goals, reflection, three words to guide me

How I Choose My Three Words for 2022.

February 7, 2022 by Jim Peacock 2 Comments

A “Hat Tip” to Dick Knowdell and His Values Card Sorts.

Each month I look ahead to find a day I can take a tech-free retreat. I don’t always find one, but most of the time I do. This practice was inspired by Richard Leider in his book Repacking Your Bags.

I have written about my retreats before, but today I want to explain how I used one of my retreats to choose my three words for 2022. If you want to read about my retreats, check out these blogs. (Read)

This past December I had scheduled a tech-free retreat for December 22 when I would read, write, reflect, meditate, and hopefully choose my three words to guide me in 2022. I had one word that I knew I wanted. Balance. I have been looking at how to reduce the number of hours I work, maintain my business, and spend more time with my recently retired wife, my friends, and family.

My retreat is a time when I typically review my journal from the past year, looking for themes that might inspire me to discover my words for the upcoming year. It’s a bit of the “intentional serendipity” that I believe in—taking action and being open to discovering something by accident.

Then I received an email from Rich Feller letting me know that Dick Knowdell had passed away. Before I became familiar with Dick Knowdell’s work, I had used the Missouri occupational card sorts a bit. But when I was introduced to his Motivated Card sorts I was hooked. It was then that I added his values card sorts to my repertoire and created my favorite workshop called “The Magic of Card Sorts.” Dick was a large force in the career development field, always giving his time, expertise, and sharing his knowledge wherever he went…with a smile.

Dick Knowdell
I decided to bring my values card sort with me on my retreat to see what might emerge for my words and also as a “hat tip” to Dick. 

The first step in the card sort is laying out the header cards: Always Valued, Often Valued, Sometimes Valued, Seldom Valued, and Never Valued. Then placing the cards, one by one, into the column that made the most sense to me at that moment. Values can change over time and I was interested in seeing what may have changed since I did this values card sort years ago. Clearly my head was in a different space now as a 65-year-old and all that life has brought to me.

As I picked up each card and read the value on it, I processed what that word means to me and how it fits into the context of my life today, at work and at home. Placing it under a heading gives value to that word and its meaning to me. There is something subliminal happening as well as cognitively. I don’t completely understand it, but I do know it happens. As I looked at my values spread out on the table in front of me, I felt like it truly represented a bit of who I am and what is important to me.

But I still could not “see” a theme. So I decided to do another sort; one that I do with the Motivated Skills Cards but had never done with the values. I took the top cards from Always and Often Valued and sorted them into groups or themes that make sense to me.

That was when the magic happened.

It was here that I could see the importance of creativity and knowledge in my work, and I knew that I still wanted to keep working. I simply love what I am doing. (see the two groups at far left). The far right group starting with “practicality” also fits into my work life well as I love the independence of owning my own business.

Much of my motivation comes out in the middle column headed by the words “affiliation” and “community.” 

Yes, I love my work and what I do.

But why? And as I thought about it, the knowledge, the creativity, the helping others, all felt like actual people to me. People I wanted to share knowledge with. People I wanted to help. And that is where the word “COMMUNITY” came from for one of my three guiding words.

Clearly that second column from the left, headed by family and friends, supported my first word of BALANCE.

But what would my third word be?

The words, “Fun” and “Humor” stuck out to me. What is it that I want to do with my family and friends…and with my work colleagues and network? Yes, to share what I know, but also to do it in a way that is fun, uplifting, creative, and practical. But it has to be in a fun way, a positive way. Something good to do each day and that adds value to my community. I thought about using the words humor or fun, and then realized that it had more to do with being optimistic or positive. And there it was, POSITIVITY. 

What I like about my three words each year is that there often is an intersection between them. When I journal, I always begin with writing down my three words: Balance, Community, Positivity. I change the order and sometimes will create designs using them, but I always write them. When I do, it forces me to think about that word and how it might fit into my day.

Sometimes “community” means my professional network, e.g. doing a LinkedIn Live session or participating in my National Career Development Association volunteer work. Sometimes “community” is my family or my hockey buddies.

Balance is always challenging me to make sure that every day  I play, workout, read, meditate, and do the work I love.

Positivity makes me smile and I think about what I could do today that will make a positive influence on me. I found a TedTalk playlist called “10 days of positive thinking.” It is a great list and I encourage you, to check them out.

If you have not stopped to look at your values recently, I encourage you to do so. What is important to you today and how will you manifest it?

And if you have any good ideas on how I can continue to build my positivity…I’m all ears. I know that my community supports me.

Read about My Three Words in 2022
 ◊ Balance  ◊Community  ◊Positivity ◊


Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: card sorts, three words, values, values card sort

INTERVIEW: My Three Words to Guide Me in 2019

January 21, 2019 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

Another Peak-Careers Interview

Three Words to Guide Me in 2019:
Why, How, and What for..

I have been choosing three words to guide me now since 2016 and my guest has been doing it for a few more years. Learn Why, How, we choose words and then listen to the words we both choose and the meaning they bring to us.

My guest today is Scott Woodard. Scott is an executive and career coach. (see full bio below)

What we will explore today:

  • Why do you choose 3 words to guide you?
  • How do you do it?
  • What are you 3 words and why?

Look for my blogs on this same topic at 3-Words Blog

Scott Woodard

Scott is an executive and career coach. He frames issues so people can take action and achieve their goals. He works with individuals and teams to see new patterns and create alternative ways to move forward. Scott has coached people from all walks of life: corporate executives and elected officials challenged to transform their organizations; Boomers trying to determine the “second acts” of their life, and new graduates starting out in their first career.

You can reach him at [email protected]
Learn more about him at www.scottwoodardcoaching.com

Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly career news email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching. He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You can also receive the career practitioners newsletter which includes a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. https://peak-careers.com

Peak Careers - Professional Development for Careers

Filed Under: Interviews Tagged With: 3 words to guide me, goals, inspiration, my 3 words, new years resolution

2016 My Three Words

January 4, 2016 by Jim Peacock 3 Comments

I have been inspired by Chris Brogan’s blog that he has been doing for ten years where he chooses 3 words to guide him through his year. I have also spoken with my good friend Sabrina Woods about this in the past and decided that this year was my year to do this.

New Year’s resolutions and goals are great but I really like Chris Brogan’s idea of choosing three words that you can remember and that guide you in your decisions and thoughts throughout the year. As I approach my 4th anniversary of full-time with Peak-Careers Consulting, this exercise “feels” right to me. I’ve learned so much about owning my own business since 2012 and each year gets clearer to me. Each year I’ve grown and I can only hope that 2016 continues to that trend.

Here are my three words and what they mean to me.

  • HEALTH
  • FOCUS
  • MINDFULNESS
[Read more…] about 2016 My Three Words

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: focus, health, mindfulness, new years resolution, Repacking Your Bags, setting goals, walking meditation

My Three Guiding Words in 2022

January 3, 2022 by Jim Peacock Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago, I took my “tech-free retreat” which I try to fit in monthly. My focus was on choosing my three guiding words for the upcoming year. December’s retreat was scheduled on a day that turned out to be our first real snowstorm of the year. Hence, it became a half-day retreat, not my typical full day one. I’ve lost access to an office I was using for my retreats, so I spent the morning at Selah Tea Cafe downtown Waterville where I worked on my three words for 2022.

I had planned to move to my other favorite coffee shop, Jorgenson’s Cafe, at noon, but they closed early. My next back up plan was to hang out in the Waterville Public Library on the 3rd floor which has a wonderful room with lots of windows looking over downtown Waterville…but alas, they closed due to the storm as well.

All was not lost as I still did lots of thinking and writing, and came up with my three guiding words for the year.

First off, let me share my words from past years. Each word still resonates with me at some level. They were important to me then and still are now as a clue to who I am and who I want to be.

2016 – Health ★ Mindfulness ★ Focus

2017 – Intentional ★ Authentic ★ Wellness

2018 – Reach ★ Capacity ★ Consistency

2019 – Reflection ★ Purposeful ★ Gratitude

2020 – Philanthropy ★ Rebalance ★ Strategic

2021 – Be ★ Kindness ★ Understanding

Here are my three guiding words for 2022 and a little of the reasoning behind each one.

Three Guiding Words: Balance Positivity Community

Balance

In 2020 I used “rebalance” which is similar, but as I looked ahead to 2022 and reflected back on 2021, I kept coming back to the guiding word of “balance.” A few years ago I was trying to rebalance, to make a bigger change. Now looking at this word the meaning feels more like balancing with smaller more permanent changes.

Like a few years ago, I am still interested in reducing the actual number of hours I spend working each week. My wife retired this past year and I am trying hard to spend more time with her. We have already gone to a number of matinees during the week, and occasionally taken some time off “just to hang out.” I want to explore this balance more in the upcoming year while continuing to add value in the career field.

Positivity

Ted Lasso inspired me on this one. Special thanks to my backpacking buddy, Howard who turned me on to the Ted Lasso show in September. I came home from our backpacking trip in Vermont and my wife and I watched both seasons this fall.

Ted Lasso is positive, unassuming, funny, and has a HUGE heart. Each episode had me laughing, crying, and often surprised at what happened.

Humor has always been a big part of my life. I want to BE a positive influence on others and I want to be as upbeat as I can every day. Life is too short to be any other way and the past couple of years have been difficult daily to navigate…sometimes I just have to stop reading articles and move on.

Community

As I think back to what I loved working on this past year, I found myself reflecting on the many zoom calls with people in the career field, many of who were thinking about going into private practice or exploring their own career development related to our field. I really want to continue to help other career practitioners and love the idea of figuring out where I want to spend my time in the career community.

I am also looking at my local community here in Central Maine to figure out where I might spend some time and energy. Of course, I also have a community of family, cousins, and friends that I want to continue to nurture.


In February I will share the process I used in choosing these three guiding words. Yes, it happened mostly on my retreat, but this year I did something a little different. I will also write more about what each word means to me in the coming months.

Have you chosen three guiding words for 2022?

If so, what are they and what do they mean to you?

Read how I choose my words this year.


Jim Peacock is the Principal at Peak-Careers Consulting and writes a weekly email for career practitioners. Peak-Careers offers discussion-based online seminars for career practitioners focused on meeting continuing education needs for CCSP, GCDF and BCC certified professionals as well as workshops for career practitioners and individual career coaching.

He is the author of A Field Guide for Career Practitioners: Helping Your Clients Create Their Next Move and The Adventure of Finding Me in New Zealand. He is also the recipient of the 2020 Kenneth C. Hoyt Award from the National Career Development Association and the Mid-Atlantic Career Counseling Association’s Professional Contribution’s Award in 2020.

Sign up to receive my TOP 10 TIPS WHEN WORKING WITH AN UNDECIDED PERSON. You will also receive the career practitioner’s weekly email on a variety of career topics, industry news, interesting events, and more. (Sign up)

Filed Under: Career Tagged With: 3 Words, goals, purpose, three words

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